Living Conditions
by Skye-Birdy
Summary: I played with the timeline a bit. What If sydney were to go missing a little earlier than expected? (rating for language)
1. Default Chapter

Authors Note - I've been writing this here and there for a while now. I hope it is liked, cause I had fun writing it. I played around with the timeline of the show, making Sydney disappear just a little earlier than she did. Its going to work for my my plot a little down the line.

Disclaimer - let me tell you, if I owned Alias, I would be out partying for joy, instead of writing little stories at my PC

Sydney was absolutely blown away. SD-6 was gone. The Alliance was gone. Sloane was no longer a problem. Most importantly, she had kissed Vaughn. It had been the most mind blowing kiss she had ever experienced. The world around them had simply disappeared and only they had existed in their little land of euphoria. She was still floating on thin air from it.

She had half a mind to roll her eyes at herself. She was acting like a fourteen-year-old after a first date, but that was just the way Vaughn made her feel. She giggled. This was getting ridiculous. She was driving, alone, headed for Francies restaurant, giggling over a kiss. This time she actually did roll her eyes.

She finally saw the restaurant up ahead. She grinned. Francie would notice right away that something was up. Then Sydney could relay every detail of the kiss to Francie. Not that she hadn't done that for herself a million times already, but once more wouldn't hurt.

She pulled into the parking lot and hopped out of the car. Her happy floating feeling disappeared and her stomach dropped when she was faced with the scene inside the restaurant. There was a Francie who had a gun pointed at another Francie.

"The second double," she muttered to herself. It wasnt exactly hard to figure out who was the double.

The Real Francie looked away from the double for a moment and flicked over to Sydney. "Syd?" she asked.

Double Francie heard this and whipped around to face Sydney. Sydney took this moment to kick the gun out of her hands.

Double Francie lunged at her, but Sydney duck and made a blow to the side of Double Francie's head. Unfortunately for Sydney, Double Francie barely hesitated before hitting back. She delivered a swift kick to Sydney's stomach, causing her to double over.

_Oh, God, _Syd thought. _This is it._ Then she heard a large thud. She looked up to see Double Francie standing with a dazed look on her face and Real Francie with a giant frying pan in her hands. It didn't take long for Sydney to put two and two together and she had realised exactly what had happened by the time Double Francie fell to the floor. Real Francie sighed, thinking it was finally over, but Sydney saw the double stir, so she kicked the head to save time and jumped into action. She practically threw her self across the room and began writing on an old reciept.

"Francie," she said in a rushed voice. "I need you to get out of here. I'll take care of the double. Go home, and if I'm not there in twenty minutes, call this man. Tell him the whole story, Tell him I'm sorry it turned out like this, tell him that the second double was of you, and tell him that I want him to tell you the truth. And unless I do come back, I'm sorry It wasn't me to tell it all. Now go." She said, shoving the piece of paper into Francie's hand. Francie reluctantly backed away, then broke into a run to her car.

Sydney turned to a rising double and prepared herself to fight. "This is most definitely going to be interesting," Sydney muttered to herself.

Francie was going insane. It had been thirty minutes since her and Sydney's "conversation" and she knew she should call, but she hadn't even opened the paper yet. It was ridiculous, but calling this guy would mean that she was accepting Sydney was dead, and she just wasn't ready for that. She let her mind wander back to same two things it had for the past half hour. How the hell there was a carbon copy of her trying to shoot her and what exactly was going down with Sydney and her unsurprised reaction to seing two Francies in one room.

Francie finally hit the edge and grabbed the piece of paper. She read it aloud.

_Michael Vaughn_

_557-6429_

Francie hesitantly picked up the phone and dialed the number.

_No, No, No. It can't be, it won't be. Sydney's so strong, and things are finally going up. We can be together without being killed. I can look at her and touch her and kiss her anywhere I want now. She's not dead. She's absolutely fine. She has to be. It's my job to protect her. I can't live without her._

Vaughn was going insane. He told himself the same things over and over, as if saying them would make them true. But he knew it wouldn't do anything. But he was addicted. And he obsessed over the fact that she might have escaped before the fire. He knew he was kidding himself. There were two bodies found in the remains. There weren't exactly many options of who it could be.

The night before a disturbed Francie had called him on his cell phone.

_"MIchael Vaughn."_

_"Hello_? _this is Francie Calfo, A friend of Sydney Bristow's. You know her, right?"_

_He grinned. "Yeah."_

_"Somethings happened. She told me to call you."_

_The smile instantly dropped from his face. "What is it? Is she hurt?"_

_He had felt his heart drop and bounce around on his stomach as Francie began to describe her night. They had found the second double all right. He had sped to the restaurant as fast as he could, only to find it engulfed in flames. And then his heart stopped. He didnt believe it was there anymore. It had simply discintegrated, probably along with Sydney in the fire that that blazed before him. He felt distinctly hollow, and wasn't really able to move. Thats when the tape started. _This isn't really happening. I'm having a nightmare. I'll wake up and She'll be fine. She's ok. I know it. Don't I?


	2. Chapter 2

A shiver ran through her body when she found it. It had to be at least 3 inches long.

Sydney Bristow had gotten a lot of scars in her life, especially after 9 years in her... business. But this was new. She would remember obtaining a three inch scar on her abdomen. Of course it was yet another question to put on her list of unexplainable things since she had woken up. Starting with how the hell she had passed out in her apartment, and ended up waking up in Hong Kong. She had to wonder just how long she had been asleep. She was guessing anywhere from a couple days to a week. But that didn't make sense either. She should be in a hospital. She should have injuries, for hell's sake! The fight! Maybe that's where she got the scar from. But she thought about it, and she would have remember getting an injury that large, even if she was shocked by the fact that she was fighting and about to kill a living, breathing duplicate of her best friend since childhood. She groaned and longed for a distraction from this self-torture. And she most definitely got it, because at that very moment, one Mr. Michael Vaughn walked in, looking rather... She searched for the right words, but all that she could thing were the reassuring words- jet lag. That must be why he looked so awful, like he had just been contemplating saying or doing something awful. She shook off the feeling and got up.

The minute he walked into the room and saw her, he regretted it. Until she got up and hugged him. He had wanted this- needed this for such a long time. He held her back and buried his face in her hair. And then he remembered what he was doing there. And he regretted the whole thing all over again. He got her to sit down. She looked so... lost. As if she wanted to know the truth, but was afraid to hear it. He didn't blame her.

Then he made the mistake of touching his face, trying to prepare for what he was about to say. Because she beat him to it.

"Vaughn," she asked slowly. "Since when do you wear a wedding ring?"

He sighed and sadly replied, "Since I got married." Sydney looked like she was about to pass out.

Sydney thought she might pass out. "And, um," she breathed out in shock. "When did this happen?"

Vaughn looked so... sad. She would have taken pity of him if she wasn't having a major breakdown at the moment. And then it got worse.

"Sydney," he said. "There's something you need to know. You've been missing... a long time. Everyone thought you were dead. I was shocked when I got the call to come and see you."

Then the anger set in. "How long?" She couldn't believe she could go missing and actually miss Vaughn getting married.

He sighed heavily. "Almost two years."

At these words, the world fell away from her. She was aware of spinning. The tears came to her eyes, but she got control of herself and held back. She was trying her hardest to look normal, but his words were echoing inside her mind. Almost two years. It was impossible. But she took a deep breath and continued to speak.

"And so you got married... In these two years?"

He smiled sadly and replied, "That's the idea."

She was taking it well, Vaughn noted. Very well. Then he realized it was Sydney Bristow he was talking about. Her world had just fallen apart in about two minutes. Of course she would act like everything's normal. He went to grab for her hand, to comfort her, but never got the chance. For at that very moment, Sydney whacked him in the face and put him in a chokehold. He probably wouldn't have been able to refrain from smiling, if he'd had the ability to breathe at that moment. It was just so classic Sydney to beat him up.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but you're sure as hell not Michael Vaughn."

Sydney was beginning to truly dislike waking up. It seemed that every time this happened, the splitting headache she had acquired since she woke up in that stupid alleyway got worse. But mostly, it was the fact that for a few blissful moments she hadn't remembered a single thing about her night. But then she opened her eyes, saw Vaughn on the other side of the plane, and everything came rushing back to her. Vaughn married, Missing two years, the fight, being sedated. She groaned, and he looked over.

"Hey," he said, gingerly, as if he were talking to a wild animal, which could attack at any moment. If Sydney hadn't seriously still felt like shooting him in the head, she would have found it entertaining.

"Hi," she croaked back.

He hesitated before saying, "It is me, you know."

She yawned. "Yeah," she said sleepily, the tranquilizer drugs not quite having worn off yet. "I figured that by now."

She paused, and then said under her breath. "Who else but Michael Vaughn can't ever be without a woman? It was simply a matter of time..."

He was grinning with a look of mild shock in his eyes when he said to her, "I heard that, you know."

She just smiled. "That's nice for you," she retorted, turned over and went back to sleep.

Vaughn was hopeful as he watched Sydney sleep. Sad, but hopeful. He had recently rejoined the CIA. And knowing Sydney, she would jump right back into it as soon as anyone would let her. He had to wonder whether she would have stayed if she hadn't gone missing. But he knew her too well, and now that her life had changed so drastically, she would want to find the most familiar things to find comfort in.

And he hoped they could still find comfort in each other.


End file.
